In the dark: a good thing

lsproule@thereview.ca
The flashing lights warned that something bad lay ahead. At 10 p.m. on Highway 417 Monday evening, it looked like a big one: an accident.
As traffic slowed and entered the narrow strip of highway now defined by flares, I searched the darkness on each side of my car. What had happened here?
Then I saw. I passed within a few feet of a large moose lying on the road, its head at a strange angle. I felt a pang at this piece of majestic wildlife which had met its end in the headlights of busy Thanksgiving traffic.
I saw two cars pulled over at the side of the highway and realized that I had missed a different kind of rendez-vous with that moose by just a few minutes. I was instantly grateful for the wait at the coffee shop in Ottawa, for the extra few minutes I took to talk to my daughter when I dropped her off and hugged her that extra time, even though it was already late.
As the traffic made its way past the accident scene, everyone quickly regained speed. When I whizzed past two small signs warning of deer and moose crossing the highway, I couldn’t help but think: why bother?
How can we possibly avoid striking an animal when our vehicles are moving at 100 kilometres per hour or more? In the dark.
I couldn’t help but think that driving along a highway at night, with the large expanses of unknown in the dark all around is kind of like life.
We drive down roads at night and do it with the hope and faith that nothing will jump out of the darkness and hurt us.
And isn’t that like life itself? We get up every day and really have no idea what lies ahead. Sometimes, there are signs and sometimes, we ignore them. Other days, the signs make us turn back and take another road.
Yet for the most part, we forge ahead and make plans. We buy homes, start businesses, take courses, and speak our minds. We make the best decisions we can with the information we have and when something unexpected happens, we don’t stop there. We might change direction or try a different route to get where we want to go, but we keep on moving forward.
How fate and self-determination play themselves out has been debated for centuries and it isn’t likely that mine will be the mind to unravel that mystery.
I do know it is important to do what feels right, forgive yourself when you take a wrong turn in the road and that in most cases, it is important to keep on going, even if you have to slow down a little because you aren’t  exactly sure of what lies ahead.
As for being in the dark: there will always be an unknown that is vast and mysterious, compared to the small circle of life that lies within our gaze.
Perhaps the present is more than enough for us to handle. Perhaps it is better that what lies ahead is only revealed when we get there.